Tor

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Tails

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Tips

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After

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wlupld3ptjvsgwqw.onion

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The Global Intelligence Files

On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.

Lauren Rich Fine's fresh and comprehensive report on the state of the
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Collins Stewart analyst Tom Eagan said an
inv*stm*nt in Sirius by Liberty was *highly
doubtful,* adding that Sirius likely
approached Liberty as a way of putting
pressure on Echostar's CEO Charlie Ergen
during their negotiations. Barclays analyst
Vijay Jayant agreed that the talks are
probably a negotiating ploy, and he went
further, saying Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin
likely approached Echostar because he is more
apt to be able to stay on as CEO if Sirius
partners with Liberty instead of Echostar
(NSDQ: SATS). Jayant wrote: *Ergen is a
hands-on operator, and would not like to have
a strongly independent CEO at a company he
controls.* Karmazin is known for being
outspoken.

While agreeing that the chances of a
Liberty/Sirius deal are slim, the analysts
differed on the question of, if the
transaction were to happen, which company
under the Liberty umbrella would do the deal.
There are currently three Liberty tracking
stocks: Liberty Media (LMDIA), Liberty
Capital (LCAPA) and Liberty Interactive
(LINTA). Eagan wrote that Liberty Media would
probably be the one because both Liberty
Capital and Liberty Interactive have heavy
debt loads. Jayant, however, argued that it
would be Liberty Capital because even though
that company has a lot of debt, it also has a
strong cash position. He said the company had
$1.7 billion in cash at the end of 2007, with
an additional $530 million set aside to buy
distressed debt.

Posted in: Advertising, Media

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Earnings: Challenging Fourth Quarter For
Viacom, But Few Surprises

By Rory Maher - Thu 12 Feb 2009 03:37 AM PST

Viacom's Q4 results were underwhelming but
were essentially in-line with expectations.
Consolidated revenue was flat versus last
year at $4.2 billion, while operating income
declined 51 percent to $475 million, driven
primarily by a one-time restructuring charge
of $454 million. EPS from continuing
operations were $0.76/share, down 10 percent
from 2007. Media networks and filmed
entertainment generated weak results,
bolstered by strength from affiliate and
theatrical divisions.

Many analysts had lowered their estimates in
earnings previews during the last few weeks
so investors will likely not be surprised by
the results, especially after weak guidance
from media companies that have already
announced earnings have likely been priced
into most media stocks. The company did not
provide 2009 guidance, but we will be
listening for it on the earnings call.

Chairman Sumner Redstone and CEO Phillippe
Dauman talked about the challenges Viacom
(NYSE: VIA) faces, saying the first quarter
this year will likely be grimmer than the
fourth quarter of 2008, and that the ad
environment *will get worse before it gets
better.* Specifically:

*Digital revenues are growing, but remain
incremental to those of other units. Dauman
said that while traffic on Viacom's sites
remains strong (46 million unique visitors in
the U.S. and 90 million worldwide) the
company isn't ready to separate out those
results because digital ads are primarily
sold as an add-on to traditional ads rather
than separately. In addition, Dauman said
that the company will *align* its traditional
network programming with its digital
programming. Translation: the economy is too
weak to support original programming online;
web programming will consist primarily of
network programming extended online. Dauman
said the company was successfully selling
digital advertising across multiple platforms
like mobile and IPTV, but he didn't offer
specifics.

*Rock Band 2 sales were solid, but weaker
than expected. Following a September 2008
launch, Rock Band 2 sold an impressive 2
million units, but this was less than the
company has predicted; the X-factor was a
sudden drop in retail consumer spending
during the last two months of the year, the
company said. Viacom expects Rock Band 2 to
be one of the few bright spots in what is
shaping up to be a very weak 2009.

*Ad revenue in the first quarter will be
worse than in the fourth quarter, with no end
in sight. CFO Tom Dooley declined to provide
details about how ad revenue is trending, but
did say that across the company, ad revenue
would be worse than the fourth quarter of
2008. Echoing previous reports from
competitors, Dooley noted that the company is
unable to predict when results could turn
around because advertisers have been making
their buys at the last minute.

*DVD sales were swept up in overall retail
weakness during the fourth quarter. Dauman
suggested that DVD sales held up fairly well
before falling off a cliff in November and
December. The company said the number of
people who see Viacom films at the box office
then buy DVDs of those movies has fallen, but
Dauman did not specify whether he thought
this was due to changing consumer behavior or
a sudden drop in retail spending during the
year. Regardless, DVD revenue is expected to
remain weak in 2009.

VIA shares are flat following the release so,
as we said in our earlier story, investors
were likely unsurprised by the results.

Posted in: Advertising, Companies,
Entertainment, Media, Money

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Earnings: RealNetworks Has Weak Q4; Music,
Games Are Bright Spots

By Rory Maher - Thu 12 Feb 2009 03:20 PM PST

RealNetworks lowered its fourth quarter
expectations about two weeks ago, so today's
announcement that the company had a weak
quarter was less of a jolt. Total revenue
dropped 3 percent to $152.6 million, and
EBITDA fell to a loss of $14.5 million.
Taking into account one-time impairment
charges related to layoffs and deferred
project costs, EBITDA was $11.3 million, down
from $15.7 million in 2007. Music and games
had a strong quarter, but the company was
weighed down by losses at the media software
and services and technology products and
services divisions. Specifically:

The company did not include 2009 guidance in
its release, but did say that the first
quarter of 2009 would likely be worse than
fourth quarter of 2008. Specifically, music
revenue would be up, it said, while games
revenue would be flat, and the media software
and services/technology products and services
divisions would continue to decline.
Earnings release | Financials | Webcast
(requires RealPlayer) | Transcript

Update: Staci adds I had some technical
trouble with part of the call so relying on
the Seeking Alpha transcript. Interestingly,
the subscriber numbers we broke out in
another post didn't come up in the Q&A. Some
notes:

*M&A: Asked about the current climate
providing an opportunity for acquisitions,
RNWK Chairman and CEO Rob Glaser said Real is
looking. *... We have absolutely increased
how active we are. I would say the pipeline
of opportunities we're looking at is wider
than I can ever recall it being. I'd say we
probably have put some criteria in place with
regard to our belief in the value creation
opportunity transactions that are even a
little bit more stringent than the ones that
we might have had three months ago.*

*Rhapsody America JV: Glaser talked about
increased awareness but admitted they haven't
been able to convert *increased awareness to
driven purchase* as much as they'd hoped,
attributing that to a number of
reasons*especially that it's trying to sell
an *abstract service.* Glaser: *Some of the
things we're looking at are ways to make that
connection more tangible and more palpable to
people; whether 30 and 60 second media is the
best environment for that remains to be seen.
We're looking at some other alternatives and
... we're going to keep plugging away at
iterating and finding what we think is an
optimal mix.*

Posted in: Advertising, Companies

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RealNetworks Breaks Out Subscriber Numbers
For First Time: 775,000 Pay For Rhapsody

By Staci D. Kramer - Thu 12 Feb 2009 04:18 PM
PST

When RealNetworks (NSDQ: RNWK) released its
Q408 earnings after hours Thursday, it also
included some data the company says it is
releasing for the first time: subscriber
numbers. It's not as detailed as some of us
might like*for instance, basic Rhapsody for
$12.99 and Rhapsody-to-Go for $14.99 are
lumped together with no color about how many
get which*but it's more than we had before.
The grand total: Real says it has 34.1
million total subscribers across all of its
services*direct to consumer and through other
providers. That includes ringback tones,
music-on-demand, video-on-demand, Rhapsody,
Rhapsody-to-Go, RadioPass, SuperPass,
GamePass, and stand-alone subscriptions.

Some details:

*Real claims 2.85 million total music
subscribers. That breaks down as follows:
Rhapsody , 775,000 and radio, 1.225 million,
for a total of 2 million; those who subscribe
through other providers or get music on
demand account for another 875,000. The
numbers do not include the fr*ee Rhapsody 25
or SuperPass subscribers.

*Some of the numbers have been consistent for
multiple consecutive quarters. For instance,
Rhapsody counted 600,000 subs for six
straight quarters from Q107 through Q208.
Then the numbers started to tick up,
something a Rhapsody spokesman attributes, in
part, to the surge of promotion from MTVN
(NYSE: VIA) as part of the Rhapsody America
JV. Real also attributes it to the promotion
of its wireless partner Verizon (NYSE: VZ).
Less clear: how many of the new subs come
from the deal to take over Yahoo's premium
music service.

. In Q308, Rhapsody subs rose to 750,000.
At the same time, though, revenue from music
has been more fluid, hitting a peak of $43.8
million in Q408, the third quarter of
sequential growth. That revenue includes
subscriptions, download sales, site
advertising, and distribution of third-party
products.

This is a first read so I'm sure other
details will pop out*and more questions.

image

Posted in: Companies, Entertainment, Money

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Saddled With Debt, Midway Games Files For
Chapter 11 Reorg

By Tameka Kee - Thu 12 Feb 2009 08:38 AM PST

Trying to get out from under roughly $150
million worth of debt, Midway Games filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy this morning. The
filing only covers the Chicago-based
publisher's U.S. operations*not its holdings
in Europe. New CEO Matt Booty said the move
would *relieve the immediate pressure from
our creditors* and give the Mortal Kombat
publisher more time to get its books in order
and explore other options.

The filing was triggered in part by Sumner
Redstone's sell off of National Amusement's
majority stake in the company in December;
the fire sale triggered provisions that
allowed Midway's debtors to ask for full
repayment, and would have also forced the
company to buy all its shares back from the
new owner. With only about $10 million on the
books, Midway was ultimately going to
default. The company petitioned for a few
weeks to delay repayment, but Chapter 11
gives it some much-needed breathing room.
Release.

Staci adds: Midway is based in Chicago but
incorporated in Delaware, which is where the
case is filed. From the initial list of top
unsecured creditors, the top content creditor
appears to be the National Basketball
Association*owed $17.3 million for
licensing/royalties*with Warner Bros.
Interactive Entertainment at $6.6 million and
Epic Games nearly $2 million. National
Amusements is owed more than $20 million.
Full filing embedded after the jump.

As long expected, Charter Communications
(NSDQ: CHTR) said it will file for bankruptcy
protection, having struck an agreement with
some debt holders on a restructuring that
will reduce the company's debt by roughly $8
billion. Two of the St. Louis cable
operator's subsidiaries, CCH I Holdings and
Charter Communications Holdings, will pay
interest payments totaling approximately $74
million of their outstanding senior notes
that were due January 15, 2009. The payments
will be made within the grace period. Charter
plans to file for Chapter 11 status on or
before April 1, 2009.

Charter also said that the refinancing and
new capital as part of the restructuring will
total $3 billion. Yesterday, Moody's
Investors Service lowered Charter's corporate
family rating down two steps to *Caa3**nine
levels below inv*stm*nt grade*on anticipation
of the bankruptcy filing. Release

*Q4 preliminary figures warn of $1.5 billion
in writedowns: Separate from the bankruptcy,
Charter issued preliminary Q4 numbers that
show $1.5 billion in unspecified impairment
charges. Charter also saw subscriber net
losses widen in Q4, as the company lost
75,100 in subscribers in Q4 versus last
year's 65,800. It also gained fewer telephone
customers (75,200 added in Q408 compared to
Q407's 155,300 additions), and added fewer
digital video customers, (22,300 in Q4, less
than half the 50,500 new subs from the
year-ago period). On the plus side, Charter
expects actual revenues of $1.656 billion, an
increase of approximately 6.6 percent.
Release

Posted in: Media, Money

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FTC Issues *Last Chance' To Ad Industry On
Behavioral Targeting

By David Kaplan - Thu 12 Feb 2009 07:47 AM
PST

The Federal Trade Commission is putting the
advertising industry on notice: either
implement stronger privacy protections when
it comes to behavioral targeting or we will
do it for you. In the FTC's 48-page Staff
Report on Behavioral Advertising (PDF), the
commission includes a set of four revised
principles, which are currently non-binding.
They are:

*Transparency and Consumer Control: Every
website that uses behavioral targeting should
clearly and concisely spell out what they're
doing. The FTC recommends that users be given
the simple method to opt-out of the site's
targeting tools. Industr

*Reasonable Security, and Limited Data
Retention, for Consumer Data: The document
states that *Companies should also retain
data only as long as is necessary to fulfill
a legitimate business or law enforcement
need.* If the FTC decides to take a stronger
regulatory hand on this, the question of just
how long a site *reasonably* needs to hold on
to user info could be a major sticking point.

*Affirmative Express Consent for Material
Changes to Existing Privacy Promises: In
other words, a company must keep its promises
that it makes with consumers when it comes to
protecting their data. If they get bought or
merge with another company, those pledges
still hold, unless consumers agree to the
changes. If the company revises its policies
on privacy, they must receive users' consent
before implementing the new rules.

*Affirmative Express Consent to (or
Prohibition Against) Using Sensitive Data for
Behavioral Advertising: If companies want to
collect *sensitive* personal data, it must
get users' permission before, not after, it
starts collecting. Release

*Industry groups unite on preserving
self-regulation: In response to the FTC's
ongoing scrutiny of behavioral targeting,
four the largest advertising trade
organizations are stepping up their efforts
to maintain self-regulatory policies that
were set over a year ago by the Federal Trade
Commission. The American Association of
Advertising Agencies (4A's), the Association
of National Advertisers (ANA), the Direct
Marketing Association (DMA), and the
Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) have
formed a group designed to maintain the FTC's
December 2007 ruling to let the ad industry
police itself. So far, the Council of Better
Business Bureaus is also on board with the
trade groups' collective initiative. But as a
new administration settles into office, and
concerns over behavioral targeting made its
way into Congressional hearings last summer,
it seems increasingly likely that some new
laws or regs will eventually be handed down.
Considering that a number of states, like New
York and Connecticut, have been taking their
own approach to ad targeting, a single
federal standard might eventually be welcomed
by the industry*so long as it doesn't further
depress an industry that's already suffering
the effects of the wider economic downturn.
Release

Posted in: Advertising, Legal

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Sony Music Re-Ups With YouTube; First Major
Label In Second Wave

By Staci D. Kramer - Thu 12 Feb 2009 07:19 PM
PST

As expected, Sony (NYSE: SNE) Music
Entertainment is the first major label to
re-sign with YouTube, AllThingsD reported
tonight and I can confirm. Details are
unclear so I can't tell you whether YouTube
was able to get rid of minimum guarantees or
Sony got some compromises when it comes to
how advertising is sold. Equally unclear:
whether whatever Sony and YouTube agreed to
will be enough to re-up EMI and Universal
Music*or to budge Warner Music Group (NYSE:
WMG), which was first in on the front end but
split with the site late last year.

Peter Kafka says the final details also are
unclear tob him but that people familiar with
the matter tell him *negotiations revolved
around three components: an upfront payment
from YouTube to Sony, the minimum amount Sony
will receive each time someone plays a Sony
video on the site, and the way the two sides
will split revenue generated by any of the
label's videos.*

For an example of why Sony Music signed
rather than follow WMG into a YouTube-less
stalemate, go to the Google (NSDQ: GOOG)
video hub and search for Avril Lavigne, then
look at the *download this song* button for
iTunes and Amazon under the Girlfriend video.
Check out the overlay ad that pops up when
the video plays or the ad button on the video
window. Sony, which actually has lost digital
market share, needs to sell digital
downloads; YouTube has served up more than
115 million streams of this video alone. If
even a fraction buy the song*and we don't
have a legit clue about how many have paid
the 99 cents since the program started in
October*well, you can finish the sentence.

Add in the rev share from advertising on the
page and other Sony artist pages, and an
incremental revenue stream could get much
bigger. The Sony Music Channel has
93,000-plus subscribers, more than 2.3
million views and, in addition to showcasing
Sony artists, offers a way to buy related
albums on Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN). Earlier today,
YouTube went public with a very small video
download-to-own trial; it's not a big leap to
think Sony and the others could wind up
selling videos in addition to the third-party
song sales.

About the advertising rev share ... content
providers are concerned about the
effectiveness of Google and YouTube when it
comes to selling advertising on the site.
They want to see improvement and, as one
content provider told me, they want to be
part of the ad sales discussions, not just
the recipient of part of whatever Google
sells.

Google's cloud is crossing the Atlantic. The
search site is buying a paper mill, hit by
the declining print media business, at Summa,
Hamina, in southeastern Finland for EUR 40
million ($51.6 million). What's Google (NSDQ:
GOOG) want with a dead-tree processing
factory? *We are currently considering to
build a data centre at this site,* a
spokesperson told Reuters.

Google has around 40+ server farms around the
world and over a dozen in Europe, including
London, Dublin, Paris, Berlin and Milan. As
it crawls more web pages and ups its
commitment to cloud-hosted apps, so it needs
server capacity. Many server farms reside
next to lakes, providing access to cheap
hydro-powered electricity; Hamina, nestled on
the Baltic coast, is the ideal location, with
nearly half of its area taken up by water.

Google is buying the site from local paper
company Stora Enso and there's a salutary
tale of the ages in the factory's transfer -
the outfit decided in 2007 to offload Summa
and two other paper mills due to *excess
capacity in newsprint and magazine paper*
resulting in *persistent losses in recent
years and poor long-term profitability
prospects* (ie. the decline of print media).

Stora Enso consumed 1,000 gigawatt hours of
power at the site, but now the paper machines
are being replaced with server computers. The
company had shed 985 staff across the sites
and 485 from Summa alone. Now the site will
be used by a company some say is competing
with those same newspaper and magazine
businesses.

Ernst & Young led the search for buyers, with
the company having said it wanted to find new
proprietors that would *establish
economically viable businesses which will
create new employment without competing with
Stora Enso*. Google isn't using all of the
site. part of which is being transferred to
the City of Hamina for *other industrial
uses*. The acquisition is due to complete at
the end of Q1. Release.

Last month Google (NSDQ: GOOG) gave up on
serving newspaper ads; now the search giant
is calling the radio business quits. In a
post on Google's blog, the company will exit
the broadcast radio business and instead
focus on streaming audio. The Google Audio
Ads and AdSense for Audio products will be
phased out; Google also plans to sell the
Google Radio Automation business, the
software that automates broadcast radio
programming. Advertisers will still to be
able to use Google Audio Ads until May 31.
Google didn't offer a specific reason for its
decision to abandon radio ads. But even the
search giant has been affected by the
economic downturn and radio, like newspapers,
have been struggling mightily. As UBS
Equities analyst Matthieu Coppet stated in
his revised media ad spend report yesterday,
radio ad spend is expected to fall 8 percent
this year.

Google got into the radio business in January
2006, when it bought dMarc Broadcasting, a
digital solutions provider for radio. The
deal was for $102 million cash consideration
with earn-out targets that, at the time, were
valued at up to $1.136 billion. The company's
founders, Chad and Ryan Steelberg, left
Google a year after the purchase offer was
made.

At least one radio ad sales company is
welcoming Google's entry into the streaming
audio space. In an email exchange, Doug
Perlson, CEO of CBS-backed streaming media ad
firm TargetSpot, told us, *Having Google
introduce their million-plus advertisers to
... the highly targeted streaming audio ad
market further validates its value. Google
will have a positive impact to the entire
internet radio community. We welcome their
entry into the space.*

Posted in: Advertising, Companies, Media,
Misc

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Parachute Woman: Christie Hefner's Severance
Package

By Rory Maher - Thu 12 Feb 2009 05:40 AM PST

Playboy Enterprises (NYSE: PLA) released an
SEC filing highlighting Christie Hefner's
severance package. Hefner stepped down as CEO
of the beleaguered adult media company in
December 2008 after 20 years:

Playboy is searching for a new CEO; Jerome
Kern, a consultant and former head of On
Command Corp., is the interim CEO.

Staci adds: This is fairly small given
Hefner's time with the company and earlier
published terms about severance. She was
eligible for a $2.2 million voluntary
severance in 2007 based on vested amounts of
deferred compensation plus accrued and unpaid
vacation*and for more than $7.5 million in
the event of a change of control.

Posted in: Media, Money

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Unable To Find Buyers, Journal Reg Shutters
33 Smalltown Weeklies

By David Kaplan - Thu 12 Feb 2009 05:30 AM
PST

An increasing number of newspapers are facing
the dire consequences of being closed unless
their owners can find a buyer. Considering
the state of newspapers in general and this
being the worst economy in 50 years, the
prospect of finding someone with the
wherewithal to take over a paper is pretty
slender. That's the situation Journal
Register (OTCBB: JRCO), which owns 27 daily
newspapers and 327 non-daily papers, found
itself in as it tried to unload its dozens of
smalltown weeklies. Mediapost catalogs the
recent list of 33 fallen*or about to
fall*Journal Reg papers throughout New York,
Connecticut, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

As we noted last month, two Journal Reg-owned
Connecticut dailies, The Bristol Press and
The Herald were about two weeks away from
stopping the presses for good, but Michael
Schroeder, owner of Central Connecticut
Communications and a former Newsday exec,
stepped in with an offer to buy. That deal
also saved three Connecticut weeklies, but
these days, such deals appear to be the
exception, not the rule.

Posted in: Media

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YouTube Adds Some Downloads*And Possibly Some
Revenue With Purchase Option

By Tameka Kee - Thu 12 Feb 2009 01:43 PM PST

After a quiet start, YouTube is expanding its
roster of downloadable videos*and putting
some up for sale in a small test. Viewers
have been able to download select videos
since mid January, when YouTube previewed the
option on Barack Obama's ChangeDotGov channel
(via the Lessig Blog). Google Operating
System*s Alex Chitu broke the news about the
purchasing option before YouTube blogged its
own announcement, and paidContent spoke with
Obadiah Greenberg, YouTube's manager of
strategic partnerships, to fill in the
details:

*Partners choose whether they want to charge:
*Our partners choose the price they want and
the kind of license attached to the content,*
Greenberg said. Universities like Stanford,
Duke and UCLA are letting viewers download
the clips for fr*ee under Creative Commons
licensing; viewers can reuse them in a
non-commercial and non-derivative way as long
as they give the proper attribution.
Currently, there are just 14 partners
offering video downloads: eight for fr*ee and
six that charge. Those selling clips will
split the revenue with YouTube*not that it
will amounts to much. HouseholdHacker, for
example, is charging $0.99 for a clip called
*How to mod a USB Flash Drive,* as is
pogobat, for *How to Solve a Rubik's Cube.*
More after the jump.

*An addition to ad sales*not in lieu of them:
*YouTube remains primarily an ad-supported
model,* Greenberg said. *This is an addition,
it's an experiment ... we'll see how it
goes.* It's also picking up where Google
(NSDQ: GOOG) Video left off: back in 2007,
Google shut down its paid download service
after it failed to gain traction. It raises
the question of whether Google will pull the
plug on Google Video altogether, since the
company recently said it would be halting
video uploads to the service.

*MP4 format lets viewers take the clips with
them: The videos will play on any device that
supports MP4 files*iPhones, iPods, Zunes and
even mobile phones. Greenberg said it was
*too early* to say whether YouTube's
downloadable library would expand to include
TV shows and videos*but if the feature gains
traction with the site's massive audience, it
could evolve into a viable iTunes
alternative.

Posted in: Advertising, Broadband, Companies,
Social Media

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Industry Moves: William Morris Digital Head
Lewis Henderson Leaving

By Staci D. Kramer - Thu 12 Feb 2009 12:24 PM
PST

William Morris vet Lewis Henderson is leaving
the talent agency after 17 years. Henderson,
head of WMA's digital media group since it
was formed in 2006, during a phone call
described the parting as amicable and said it
was time to move on. No details about what
he'll do next: *I've had enough conversations
with people that I felt confident.* He's
staying through the end of the month. The
agency's plans for the digital media group
weren't clear. So far, all they've issued is
a statement from Chairman and CEO Jim Wiatt
thanking Henderson: *We wish him the best,
and look forward to working with him again in
the future.* (Henderson took part in our
Digital Media Year in Review last December;
the video is embedded after the jump.)

Update: In an e-mail he just sent out,
Henderson said the move *was purely driven by
my desire to remove my agent hat and pursue a
more entrepreneurial role.*

[EMBED]

Posted in: Entertainment, Industry Moves

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Industry Moves: Microsoft; Macrovision;
Interpret; Verizon

By Amanda Natividad - Thu 12 Feb 2009 03:47
PM PST

*Microsoft: Nissan Motor executive Simon
Sproule is joining as corporate VP of
corporate communications. Reporting to SVP of
central marketing Mich Matthews, Sproule will
execute public affairs and media relations.
While at Nissan, he served as corporate VP of
global communications and earlier led
communications for Aston Martin and Jaguar at
Ford Motor Co. (Via release.) In another
another hire made public this week, former
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) exec Larry Heck follows
the breadcrumbs north as a VP to help bolster
its search efforts, reports AllThingsD. He's
the third Yahoo to defect to Microsoft (NSDQ:
MSFT) this year; Scott Moore is the new
executive producer of MSN U.S., and Eric
Hadley joined MSN.

*Macrovision: Sean Besser has left consulting
for Macrovision (NSDQ: MVSN) as VP of
business development. In this role he will
focus on online content strategy, namely
bringing downloadable content to TV sets.
Besser left his post as director of business
development at Movielink shortly after the
Blockbuster acquisition in 2007.

*Interpret: The media and tech research firm
has hired Michael Gartenberg as its VP of
strategy and analysis, a new role.
Gartenberg, who has a blog on mobile devices,
will be responsible for cross-media analysis
of the various sectors in entertainment and
online media. Previously, he was VP and
research director at Jupiter Research.

*Verizon: Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ)
has announced that John F. Killian will be
chief financial officer and executive vice
president from March 1. He's currently
president of Verizon Business, and before
that was senior vice president and chief
financial officer for Verizon's Domestic
Telecom group. Killian will replace Doreen A.
Toben, who is retiring. Release.

Posted in: Companies, Industry Moves, Media

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Square Enix Launches $121 Million Bid For
Tomb Raider Maker Eidos

By Patrick Smith - Thu 12 Feb 2009 03:05 AM
PST

Japanese games giant Square Enix, maker of
the Final Fantasy series, has launched a
*84.3 million ($121.2 million) bid for Tomb
Raider developer Eidos. The British firm last
month confirmed an approach had been made on
the company but didn't reveal who. But now a
30-page document (pdf) confirms that the
directors of Eidos and SQEX, a
UK-incorporated Square Enix subsidiary, have
agreed a deal subject to shareholder
approval. Shareholders will get *0.32 ($0.46)
for each share which represents a 258 percent
premium on the price from January 14, the day
before Eidos announced an approach. Eidos's
shares more than doubled in price from a
close of *0.14 ($0.20) yesterday to a 52-week
high of *0.31 ($0.44) this morning.

The offer now goes to Eidos shareholders at
an EGM where the motion needs a 75 percent
value majority to go through*and
unsurprisingly given the company's turbulent
last few months, Eidos directors will
*unanimously* recommend the bid to investors.
Eidos, which re-named itself from SCi
Entertainment last year, has long been an M&A
target: in September 2007 as many as three
bidders were considering offers, including
major shareholder Time Warner which owns just
under 20 percent. The deal would see Eidos
delisted from the London Stock Exchange and
become a private holding of SQEX. Read more
at our sister site paidContent:UK...

Social media advertising agency Mr Youth has
secured its first round of funding. Alta
Communications and The Mustang Group, two
private equity firms, invested an undisclosed
amount in the N.Y.-based firm. The funding
comes with a senior leadership change, as
co-founder Matt Britton has been promoted to
CEO; he previously oversaw sales and
marketing. Former CEO Paul Tedeschi, also a
co-founder, is leaving the agency.

Mr Youth will use the inv*stm*nt to expand
RepNation, its *word-of-mouth* network that
pairs interested users with promotions from
brands like JetBlue, Ford and Microsoft.
Members sign up and earn prizes, cash and
other perks for setting up and participating
in offline marketing efforts. The company was
founded in 2002.

Posted in: Advertising, Social Media, VC+M&A

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Earnings: ValueClick; TheKnot; Journal Comm

By David Kaplan - Thu 12 Feb 2009 03:44 PM
PST

-- ValueClick Posts Net Loss; Revs Fall 14.6
Percent: Online ad firm ValueClick (NSDQ:
VCLK) posted a $261.2 million ($3.01 per
share) GAAP net loss from continuing
operations on a preliminary, pre-tax $327
million non-cash goodwill impairment charge.
That compares to income from continuing
operations of $17.6 million ($0.18 per
share). If the charge hadn't been included,
net income from continuing operations would
have been $14.1 million, or $0.16 per diluted
common share, at the high end of the guidance
range of $0.15 to $0.16 per share...

-- Hold The Confetti, TheKnot Swings To Net
Loss; Full Year Profits Declined 65.5
Percent: Wedding planning and newlywed
lifestyle network TheKnot posted a net loss
in Q4 to $981,000 ($0.03 per share), as the
company incurred pre-tax impairment charge of
$4 million. Last year, TheKnot had $2.6
million ($0.08) in Q4 profits. Revenue was up
a slight 1 percent to $24.4 million, though
national and local online ad revs gained a
respectable 5 percent of Q407...

-- Journal Comm Posts $223M Net Loss; Online
Revs Slide In Q4: Impairment charges on
licensing fees and severance swung Journal
Communications (NYSE: JRN) to a net loss of
$223 million in Q4 versus the $9.5 million in
profits the year before. Revenues for the
Milwaukee newspaper and broadcast owner fell
9 percent to $134.3 million. The publisher of
the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel*its only
daily, as Journal Comm owns a few weekly
community papers*said that interactive ad
revs at its daily paper slipped 3.4 percent
to $3.6 million compared to $3.7 million, a
further sign that online advertising is no
longer the bright spot it used to be.
Overall, publishing revenue dropped 10.4
percent to $60 million...